1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a liquid lubricated radial sliding bearing comprising a bearing sleeve of wear-resistant bearing material which is elastically fastened in an outer part and which together with a shaft part forms an elastic journalling which can follow thermal heat expansions and inclined positions of the shaft to a limited extent.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In EP-B-0 204 235 a bearing with a bearing sleeve of silicon carbide is shown in which a further shaft sleeve runs, which rotates with the shaft. The bearing sleeve is outwardly covered over by an elastic rubber hose, which additionally engages into grooves on its jacket surface and is fastened at the outside with an adhesive bonding in a housing bore in the housing. The elasticity of the intermediate layer of rubber is intended to prevent over-stressing due to bending deflections of the shaft, thrusts or inclined positions. Due to the use of rubber and an adhesive bonding, an application for all kinds of water is envisaged. The use of rubber restricts the range of application of a bearing of this kind. Solvents and aging can strongly modify the elastic properties of rubber; softening, hardening or becoming brittle can take place.
A further construction is shown by the CERATEC company (Technical Ceramics BV, P. O. Box 57, 4190 CB Geldermalsen, The Netherlands) in its brochure of May 1997 for compact sliding bearings. Shown are ceramic sliding pairings in which ceramic bearing sleeves and shaft sleeves are in each case embedded in a support ring. In the jacket surface of the support rings, U-shaped slits are provided and U-shaped lobes are cut free at which the ceramic bearing sleeves and shaft sleeves lie in contact in order to compensate different thermal expansions. The cutting free of the U-shaped lobes must be done with spark-erosive wire cutting or spark-erosively with electrodes of thin U-shaped cross-section, which in both cases is a time consuming and expensive treatment. The length of the slits to be produced by spark erosion is substantially greater than the bearing circumference. Methods other than spark erosion do not make the manufacture of these slits less expensive. Furthermore, direct pressure peaks are present at the ceramic bearing sleeves and shaft sleeves which alternate with pressure-less zones, and at positions of greater inclination diagonally displaced pressure points arise at the ceramic sleeves.